Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1887-07-18
On An ICE BOAT.
A CORRESPONDENT GIVES A BIT
OF HIS PERSONAL EXPERIENCE.

Swimming Across the Ice at the Rate of
Mile a Minute-A Trick on a Passen-
ger Travelling Faster Than the
Wind.
The Hudson river ice boats are generally
considered to be the handsomest and most
COMFORTABLY, although Madison, Wis, has
some excellent ones. But the majority Of
those here are built by the native youths for
their own use and speed rather than beauty
or comfort is their aim. That they attain
this your correspondent can bear witness, for
he rode from Madison to the insane asylum
across lake Mendoza Ia distance of fully five
miles, in five minutes, and, after the first
minute out in view of the fact that he had
undertaken such trip, he made up his mind
that he was headed for the proper place.
There are many pleasures in ice boating,
but sitting on the end of plank with your
arms wrapped around stay and the wind
playing tag up and down your spinal column
is not one of them As the wind gains conf
dence, and playfully toys with your fingers
and toes, your enthusiasm for the sport rap
idly dies out. But then one does not often
have to do this, As a general thing he will,
especially If a stranger, be allowed to recline
beneath protecting buffalo robe, while some
pretty Madison damsel tells him fairy tales
about the dangers of ice boating and yacht
ing, for, be it known, nothing pleases native
of this pretty little town more than TO harrow
up the soul of the unsuspecting visitor by
narratives that will give him the impression
that he is at any moment liable to be hurled
iufo prtf tho,oh Id
your correspondent, with that gallantry for
which Chicagoans are noted, informed bis
fair companion that in such delightful COM
pany even a journey into eternity would be
welcome pleasure, to which she quickly re-
sponded: "Oh, but are you sure we would
travel togetherl Do you think you would go
my wayN Then your correspondent crawled
out of his retirement to ask the captain if
there was anything he could do. The cap
tain evidently thought there was. for he gave
the boat sudden swerve that sent your cor
respondent tobogganing across the ice in very
much the same way that the youth had de-
scended the toboggan chute some hours be
fore. He afterward apologized most humbly,
and explained that he was obliged to make
the sudden change in his course on account of
crack in the ice which he saw little dis
tance ahead, but the fact that that crack was
not visible TO the naked eye is in itself sus-
picious In short, it looked very much like
put up job, and the information vouchsafed
by another Madison youth that it is custom
ary to give strangers this unlocked for ride
did not make the explanation seem any more
plausible.
To PREVENT ACCIDENTS.
Still these excursions are often taken as the
result of accident, for the lake is scanned with
cracks Just large enough to admit the runner
OF course if the boat strikes the crack at
right angles 1t will pass over without diff
Guilty. but if the captain inadvertently runs
it upon one at an angle of, say forty-five de
grees, the course of the boat will sometimes
be changed so suddenly as to send the whole
party shooting across the ice. To avoid such
accidents the skipper generally straps himself
on; but it is no uncommon thing, if he is a
little careless in his sailing, to have the bal
| ance of the party leave him Unexpectedly.
But, of course, when ladies are aboard the
greatest care is taken to prevent such acci-
dents
The speed attained by iceboats is remark
| able. With favorable wind one of these
iTaNtl at lildb VIII iiltht IL
| express train blush for very shame. A favor
| able wind, by the way, does not mean a wind
over the stern; wind on the beam is much
preferable to that With stern wind the
| boat, of course, can travel no faster than the
| wind, but with the wind from more favor
| able quarter it can. The unnitiated will doubt
this assertion but it is true, and has been proved
| to he so. If the uninitiated will stop to con-
| slider the fact that, except when running be
| fore the wind, the motion of the boat is made
| by the wind sliding off the sails, not pushing
| from behind; that the iceboat is very light
| and its friction in passing over the ice almost
| nothing, they will see how it can travel faster
than the force that propels it. If the sail
| boat was not retarded so much by friction
with the water it could, on the same tacks
travel at the same rate of speed as the ice
boat. The wind was not making sixty miles
an hour when your correspondent Travelled
| five miles in five minutes.-Cor Chicago
Herald